Here is every GUI technology actually shipping on Windows today:
- Win32 (1985) – Still here. Still used. Petzold’s book still applies.
- MFC (1992) – C++ wrapper on Win32. Maintenance mode. Lives in enterprise and CAD.
- WinForms (2002) – .NET wrapper on Win32. “Available but discouraged.” Still fastest for data-entry forms.
- WPF (2006) – XAML, DirectX-rendered, open source. No new Microsoft investment.
- WinUI 3 / Windows App SDK (2021) – The “modern” answer. Uncertain roadmap.
- MAUI (2022) – Cross-platform successor to Xamarin.Forms. The .NET team’s current bet.
- Blazor Hybrid – .NET Razor components in a native WebView.
- WebView2 – Embed Chromium in a Win32/WinForms/WPF app.
- Electron – Chromium + Node.js. VS Code, Slack, Discord. The most widely deployed desktop GUI technology on Windows right now – and Microsoft had nothing to do with it.
- Flutter (Google) – Dart, custom renderer, cross-platform.
- Tauri – Rust backend, lightweight Electron alternative.
- Qt – C++/Python/JavaScript. The serious cross-platform option.
- React Native for Windows – Microsoft-backed port of Facebook’s mobile framework.
- Avalonia – Open source WPF spiritual successor. Used by JetBrains, GitHub, Unity – developers who stopped waiting for Microsoft.
- Uno Platform – WinUI APIs on every platform. More committed to WinUI than Microsoft is.
- Delphi / RAD Studio – Still alive. Still fast. Still in vertical market software.
- Java Swing / JavaFX – Yes, still in production. The enterprise never forgets.
Seventeen approaches. Five programming languages. Three rendering philosophies.
That is not a platform. I might not have a dictionary definition for the term boof-a-rama but I know one when I see it.